Sunshine Over The Blue Hills
by Vizidoodle
Summary: A woman's quest to get groceries, defeat evil, and wear cool shades.
1. Slash and Burn

Two months and two American coasts apart in the year 1956, two people were on set on a path toward each other.

One had quietly slipped away on a chilly October night, and the other had made their escape during the height of a devastating December blizzard.

But this story does not revolve around those two months in 1956, but instead the eventual result of it.

* * *

Several decades and many miles later in the year 2000, a woman by the name of Celine Grayley found herself in a tidal wave of people that flooded the streets. Celine wasn't usually the kind of person to go shopping in the late afternoon (or day for that matter), but then it had been a busy one and she had no choice but to finish the errands now before it was too late.

Celine looked up from behind her dark black sunglasses and as she did, the various buildings and skyscrapers that lined the streets seemed to stare down upon her. Great herds of people rushed in every which way, causing her to have to swerve this way and that just to avoid them.

She had latched on the bag she was holding, one arm around it as she avoided the crowds. A few nearly slammed into her but she was always quick enough to avoid a head-on collision.

A few spare items were unfortunate enough to tumble out of the bag and onto the sidewalk. Celine sighed to herself and leaned down to scoop them all up again when something- paranoia?- shot down her spine.

'Strange,' she thought to herself but pressed no further.

She sorted all the items back into their places and continued on her day. Eventually, she had finished all her errands and forgot about the strange feeling from earlier.

Or, at least, that was how she planned for it go until screams rang out from deeper in the crowd. People frantically tried to run from whatever had happened, but the area was choked with so many people that they caused even more panic.

People continued to rush around wildly and as Celine noticed a few odd things. Some people were heavily bleeding while others were now missing entire limbs, and of course, the crowd crying out in panic.

"Listen up!" A harsh voice sounded over the rest of the crowd.

"I don't care how long it takes, I'm going to find you in this crowd even if I need to go person by person! You know who you are!"

The crowd continued to run around in a frenzy, all the while more of them being seriously injured.

"He's going to kill us!" One person wisely observed.

"Run away!" Another screamed.

"That's it!" The man egged on. "Go ahead and scurry around! Your panic is my power!"

Celine began to push through the crowd to find the source of the commotion as if she were a fish trying to swim upstream. All the while, the crowd pushed, ran into, and stepped on Celine as she attempted this.

She managed to break through the most people-heavy areas and finally, finally did she get to see the incident inciter.

"So you finally got my message."

There stood a man with an open dark red punk rock jacket of sorts, with a light gray shirt that looked like it had been torn up with a pair of scissors. He had pants of a similar nature, and for some reason, he was also holding a sword-like whip.

"What are you doing?" Celine demanded.

"Now that's an easy question!" The man laughed.

"I'm going to kill you right here and now!"

"What?" Celine replied in disbelief.

"You heard me, I'm going to slice and dice you! There's going to be nothing left of you but a pile of mincemeat!"

"Excuse me, but, who are you?" Celine asked.

"Curious, I see! Well, let me introduce myself in the last moments of your life! My name is Slash. Hello and goodbye!"

He raised the whip and cracked it at her.

Celine frowned and dashed to the side, and Slash cracked the whip at her again. She avoided it again but more narrowly.

"Don't think I can't feel the panic coming from you, too! You're trying to keep calm but you're just as afraid as the rest of this crowd. And that means you'll lose! My upper hand is always when the enemy is unstable!" Slash exclaimed and attempted again to strike Celine.

She attempted to dodge again, but this time the whip hit her. It nearly sliced to the bone with one strike and caused Celine to hiss in pain.

"I'll let you in on a little secret," Slash said.

"When I said that panic is my power, I wasn't lying! The more fear, the stronger my Fall of Adam becomes! So go ahead and try to beat me, as long as that unsure fear stays within you, I'll stay strong!"

"If you think you can scare me with a few empty threats, you are wrong," Celine replied.

"Well, then come on and get me if you're so fearless!" Slash pressed.

Just then, a light glinted across the sunglasses Celine had been wearing and the surrounding area was thrown into darkness.

The surrounding crowd, meanwhile, was thrown into further disarray as their wild panic turned into a blind frenzy.

People were trampled and injured as they stampeded everywhere.

In the commotion, Slash continued to wildly strike at people around him, one of which was Celine.

It tore a nasty gash right near her ear and the sunglasses were struck from her face. They skittered away and the darkness disappeared.

Celine stumbled forward as the blood streamed down the side of her face. The wound was deeper than any normal wound that a whip should make in one hit, but of course, this was no normal whip at all.

She gritted her teeth together and reached out for the pair of sunglasses, but Slash snatched them away.

"Hm? What a nice little pair you have here, maybe I'll just keep them! How does that sound?" Slash taunted and he waved the pair in the air carelessly.

"Give those back," Celine demanded as she made her way to Slash slowly. The wound on her cheek burned and stung all the while.

"I have to give credit to you, that darkness stunt you used? It upped the ante for me! I'm even stronger now, all thanks to you!"

"Listen, if you could give those back, maybe we could work something out so you could stop trying to ki-"

"Work something out?" Slash spat. "All this I've done, just for nothing because YOU want to sit down and _have a nice chat_?!"

He struck at her again and this time it hit her shoulder, nearly cutting to the bone.

Celine hissed in pain again as she forced herself to move forward.

"Wh-why do you even want to kill me?" Celine asked in a choppy, stilted voice.

"Enough talking!" Slash snapped. "If all you're gonna do is run your mouth, then I'm gonna kill you right now! DIE!"

Slash slashed at her once again and this time it hit her right in the abdomen. Celine pressed a hand to her side to check the damage. She winced as soon as it made contact.

'It injured me much more than I thought it would...' Celine thought to herself. 'If I keep getting hit like this, I might not even be able to move... I have to think of something.'

She slowly rose up to her full height and looked around her. The crowd was still stomping around, though a portion of it had fled.

The crowd...

She erratically staggered over to one of the smaller groups.

"You," she raised her voice to them.

"Do you see that man over there? He attacked you, yes?"

"Yes..." one of them said awkwardly "Why?"

"Are you going to do something about it?" Celine asked.

"He has one of those whip-swords," a second person began but was cut off.

"-It's an urumi," a third stranger cut in.

"Right, he has that urumi or whatever," the second person said. "How in the world are we supposed to get 'em if he has one of those and we don't?"

"Wait wait wait," a third said. "I have an idea. What if we go and yell at everybody and we gang up on him?"

All the while, Celine stood back and watched them formulate the plan.

'This is much easier than I thought it would be. I thought I was going have to make an inspiring speech like in the movies,' she thought to herself.

The second person walked past Celine and spoke up.

"HEY! YOU'D BETTER LISTEN UP RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!" He yelled at the top of his lungs.

A good chunk of the crowd looked to stare at the man and take in his bold words.

"YOU SEE THAT GUY OVER THERE?!" He pointed to Slash.

Slash was staring back at him, a confused look on his face.

"He attacked us! Right?!"

"RIGHT!" The other three yelled.

"What are you doing?!" Slash shouted. He went to strike the group with Fall of Adam, but his arm was stuck in place.

"Not so fast, man."

The third person held onto Slash's arm tightly and looked down at him with a mischievous smile.

"No! This isn't supposed to happen!" Slash shouted.

Celine snatched the sunglasses out of Slash's hand and then proceeded to swiftly kick him in the shin.

Slash threw his head back and cursed loudly.

The fourth and first person joined in, as well as a few other random people.

"Get back!" Slash cried in a desperate tone as he kicked at the quickly-growing group of people. He managed to weasel his way out between a small gap in the crowd and held onto Fall of Adam tightly.

"T-thith isn't ober!" Slash managed to sputter out, his words altered by a broken lip and at least one missing tooth. He dashed into

another crowd until he was out of sight.

Celine had disappeared into the crowd too but in another direction. A small cloud of darkness surrounded her as she continued on her route home.

'So much for running my errands,' Celine thought as she dedicated a short moment to her grocerylessness.

The way back was considerably longer, mostly because of the incident with the man named Slash. Finally, Celine had made it back. She stood in front of a brick building, square-shaped with signs of wear over the years like all the other buildings on the block. The area that held the house was older and much less crowded, somewhat like a suburb to the city.

Celine looked around as she quickly snuck over to the house's left window. She jimmied it open just enough for her to fit inside and quickly shut it.

She closed the blinds behind her and walked until she faced a mirror.

_Check wounds..._

The first major wound was smaller than the others and required less immediate attention. The other two were still bleeding but much less than before.

_Check_.

"I will deal with it tomorrow. It will be fine."

She turned away from the mirror and made her way to the living room area.

_Sit down..._

She practically fell into a dark-colored recliner chair.

_Check_.

Groceries…

Celine sighed.

_There's_ _always_ _tomorrow_.


	2. Market Panther

Sunshine Over the Blue Hills Chapter 2

Market Panther

For Celine, it was now yesterday's tomorrow, or in non-strange and non-abstract terms, today. Or more accurately, today's evening, since she had spent the whole day inside the house and looking at the wounds that Slash had made. Now that they were taken care of, Celine could return to the way things were supposed to go.

That is how it was supposed to work in an ideal world, with an ideal schedule, however, yesterday had been so hectic that Celine had no choice but to disrupt her schedule yet again.

She would have to go out and buy groceries… _again._

She sighed exasperatedly as she shut the window behind her, making her way down the sidewalk as she looked around to make sure no-one had seen her leave the house in the way that she did.

"I will not make the same mistake again," Celine instructed herself. She had barely left the neighborhood when her eye caught a wooden, hand-painted sign.

'_Fresh Produce Daily! Market This Way!'_

Below it was an arrow pointing to the left. Celine sighed and began to walk in that direction.

"Well, maybe it would not hurt to try that place," she told herself.

Along the way, there were a few more signs that pointed toward the supposed 'Market'.

Eventually, Celine stood in front of a small semicircle of wooden booths with fresh foods of all kinds. particular, one of them was selling fruits and vegetables. Celine walked up to the produce booth. The person Celine assumed was in charge of it was turned away from her and working with some of the said produce.

"Hello, what are you here for today?"

There was a sudden voice, a strong female voice. The person had turned around, it was a woman.

Tall, but not too tall. Curly, fluffy, bright white hair on the right, hanging over a wide and welcoming smile. The other side was shaved. Blue denim overalls, with a shirt of the same bright white as her hair barely peeking out from under it.

"I saw your sign," Celine said.

"So are you here to buy it?" The woman joked.

"No, I was actually here to buy some food…"

"Well you've come to the right place, we have fresh produce here every day."

The woman gestured to the collection of fruits and vegetables in front of her.

"Take your pick, they're all for sale."

"How do you get fresh produce every day?" Celine asked. There was always the option of being shipped from the countryside, but even then that seemed strange. _Every_ day? That must have been almost entirely impossible.

"Chalk it up to a green thumb and lots of work," the woman replied. "I might have some more reserves down here."

She crouched underneath the wooden counter, and for a brief moment, there was a very faint sound almost like a cat purring. The woman stood up and was holding a yellow apple in her hand.

"There," she said and set the apple with the others.

"What is your name?" Celine asked.

"Rosalinda, nice to meet you here today. What's yours?"

"Celine..." Celine said.

"Oh," Rosalinda said. "Selene, like the moon."

"Celine spelled with a C," Celine corrected awkwardly. "And it is nice to meet you too."

"Same here," Rosalinda said. "Say, you look a bit roughed up over there."

She gestured to the cut on Celine's cheek. Celine shrugged halfheartedly.

"It is not that important, just a little cut," she attempted to dismiss.

"Little cut? Looks more like scar material to me," Rosalinda said.

"Oh, it's just something from a fight."

As Celine and Rosalinda spoke, a large feline face slowly peeked out from under the fruit display. It blinked at Celine curiously, rising up a little further.

It was green.

It made a soft purring noise as it made its way to Rosalinda, rubbing its face against her hand. It seemed that it was also roughly the size of a

jaguar or panther.

"What is that?" Celine asked.

Rosalinda looked with surprise.

"You can see her?" She asked curiously.

"If you are referring to the big purple and green cat directly in front of you, yes. I can."

"I've never had that happen before," Rosalinda said with relief in her voice. "This is Pantera!"

Pantera stared up at Celine with two unblinking eyes.

"Hello," Celine spoke. "So where did you find Pantera anyway?"

"I've actually known her my whole life if that doesn't sound crazy enough."

"Does it… _do _anything?" Celine asked curiously.

"Yeah," Rosalinda said, "Watch this."

Pantera strode over to an empty patch of dirt and touched it with one paw. Suddenly a plant bearing a fresh mango sprouted from it. Then, the fruit unexpectedly turned entirely red!

"That's mostly all of it," Rosalinda said, giving Pantera a nice pat.

"I see," Celine said and nodded.

"Wait a minute," Rosalinda said. "How come you can see Pantera but nobody else can?"

"Well, we have a similar kind of power, called a Stand. Think of it as a representation of your willpower, or your fighting spirit."

"'Stand'?" Rosalinda asked. "Like a… produce stand?"

She looked down at the produce stand and smiled jokingly.

"Well, all the people I have met that have a Stand call it a Stand. I am not sure if anyone has asked why, yet," Celine explained and shrugged.

"Do you have one?" Rosalinda asked.

"Yes," Celine replied.

"Where is it?"

"Here," Celine said as she took off her sunglasses.

"Where is it?" Rosalinda asked.

"The sunglasses _are _the Stand," Celine replied as she put the pair back on_._

"Ohhhh," Rosalinda said. "So every Stand is different then? Sorry if I'm sounding awfully nosy, it's just that before today I thought I was the only one."

"Excuse me, one more thing," Celine said.

"Yeah?" Rosalinda asked.

"How much would this cost?" Celine asked. "For the fruits and vegetables."

She held up her bag, which had some various options of produce products in them. It seemed she had already grabbed some during the conversation.

"That will be… fifteen dollars."

"For all of it?"

"All of it. Pantera comes in handy a lot when it comes to growing things, you know."

"I would imagine so. Being able to grow any plant at any time…"

"Well, Pantera does have her limits. I can't just go telling her to grow things a mile long all day. You have to make things reasonable," Rosalinda admitted.

Celine went through her pockets and quickly pulled out a twenty.

"Here you are," she said. "Does anyone else know that you use Pantera for growing your produce?"

"Well, I figure it'd be tough to explain that I grow things with the help of a green panther they can't see, right?" She gave a quick laugh.

"Plus, I'm not all reliant on Pantera, even if she is pretty helpful to the process. Putting in the work, taking care of these plants and growing them, all the way here… hard work pays off too."

"I am sure it does," Celine replied. "For your Stand to end up as it did, I am sure you have been following the 'hard work' speech a lot, and for a long time."

"I sure have. I grew up in the countryside outside of this city. Every year me and my family would go out and do this farmer's market. I always tried to use Pantera to help out, but in some cases, I figured out that doing it myself paid off more. And made more sense than making plants magically come from the ground, you know."

"Every year?" Celine repeated curiously.

"Yep. My folks are right over there, manning the other booths as they always do."

Rosalinda gestured over to the other various booths, and sure enough, a fairly old man and woman were selling things, organizing, and various other tasks.

"Do they know about Pantera?" Celine asked.

Rosalinda shook her head.

"No, I tried to explain a couple times but they chalked it up to an imaginary friend. It's hard to show someone something they can't see. I'd imagine it's easier for you, yours is out in the open for all to see."

"I suppose, yes. Though, I have not had my Stand for as long as you have."

Rosalinda took a pause from the conversation to lean on the counter of the wooden booth. Then, curiously, she oddly squinted at Celine. Celine looked back at her awkwardly.

"Say, Celine…"

"...Yes?" Celine answered quietly.

"What happened to that cut? It looks like it went and disappeared right off your face!"

"Disappeared?" Celine stammered. She slowly moved a hand to her cheek. Sure enough, all traces of the wound were entirely gone.

As if the wound had never been there, to begin with. As if her face had somehow healed itself.

"Well, you see- I-" Celine stammered. "How do I put this?"

"Go ahead," Rosalinda replied. "After this whole 'Stand' thing, I'm sure I can handle it."

"I am not sure, Rosalinda… you see-"

"Listen, Celine, the only thing I can see is that you're freezing up. Take your time," Rosalinda said, as she looked over and around her. Hopefully, she had the time, though the other customers seemed to be at the other booths.

Celine took a deep breath.

"Well, I have this condition that makes me- heal quicker," she spoke very quickly.

Rosalinda raised an eyebrow.

"Really?"

"Yes, yes, you know how it is, you skin your knee and the next thing you know… gone!" She laughed awkwardly afterward.

"Celine, are you sure you're telling the truth?"

"What," Celine replied blankly. "Of course not, why would I do that."

"It just sounds a lot like you're scrambling to come up with an explanation," Rosalinda said, she kept her skeptical look.

"Fine," Celine said suddenly. "Can you come over here for a moment?"

The two of them moved off to the side, away from the booths. Celine leaned forward and began. She spoke in a low, hushed voice.

"I was telling the truth, Rosalinda…" Celine trailed off, luckily for her, the sunglasses hid the unsureness in her eyes.

"Mhm."

"However, there is more to it than just that. A lot more, actually."

She took another breath, less rushed now. Admitting it would be difficult, but Rosalinda seemed as though she was going to press her until she spoke the truth.

"The quick healing is a… a part of it. That happens quite often to me, actually. But, there is a reason why that happens, really. It is a trait that was, you know, carried down from my father, one that includes a, uh, few other things as well."

Her speech became more choppy and less cohesive as she went on. Rosalinda stood there patiently.

'Will she really even believe me about all this?' Celine thought to herself anxiously. 'What if she does not? What if she thinks I am a lunatic? What if-'

"Celine?" Rosalinda asked quietly.

Celine looked up. She had been staring at the ground during her inner thoughts.

"Are you okay? Your legs are starting to shake a little."

"It is just the jitters," Celine lied. "This happens to me sometimes."

"Anyway. As I was saying," she continued, she cleared her throat and steadied herself.

"It all stems from my father, he was like this too," Celine explained. "The same condition and everything. The quick healing is, as I explained, a part of it. So is… well, a slight aversion to the sun. That is why my Stand comes in handy for me, to help me with my 'condition' to prevent anything bad from happening."

"Like a vampire?" Rosalinda asked lightly. "Or is it a medical condition?"

Celine looked at her with an awkward smile.

"You could certainly say that it is a little bit of both."

"So this Stand of yours keeps you safe? How?"

"Like so," Celine replied, and suddenly a streak of light glinted across her sunglasses. A small area of darkness appeared around Celine and Rosalinda. Quickly, Celine made it disappear.

"That is what my Stand does. It can create a pitch-black area of darkness, and at the same time it slows down the amount of time it takes for the sun to do any real injury to me."

"So, as I was saying," Rosalinda said. "Celine, are you some kind of vampire?"

Celine took another deep breath, this time to calm herself down.

"Have you ever heard of something called a Pillar Man?"


	3. Bothersome Bug

"A Pillar Man is similar to... a vampire, as I explained."

Rosalinda's eyes widened a little.

"Vampires are real after all... are there any others like you?"

"None other than my father, at least... not to my knowledge. All I know about all these vampire and Pillar Man things come from him, so I have never really had a chance to try to learn on my own."

"You didn't come to eat my arms or something, right?" Rosalinda asked. "I mean, all I know about vampires is that they like to stomp around eating people."

"Of course not!" Celine said, caught off guard and a bit embarrassed.

"Then what do you eat?" Rosalinda asked.

"Rosalinda, we are at a farmer's market that sells produce."

"...Right. Sorry about that," Rosalinda apologized.

"It is fine. Also... I remember that there is a difference between a vampire and I. I think that my father once said we were 'higher' than them? I am not sure what that means... but it is mostly similar to a vampire."

"Your old man is a vampire, that seems crazy if you ask me. Roaming around at night, scaring people, being high."

"Not that kind of high," Celine replied in a slightly offended tone.

"Right, I get it," Rosalinda replied. "But how does a vampire end up roaming around like that in the first place?"

In response, Celine stared out into the distance in a dramatic sort of manner.

_The winter of 1956. The East Coast is in the process of being battered by one of the worst blizzards in history! The general public advised to stay careful and stay inside._

_Travel is considered highly risky and several major roads have been closed due to high-speed winds and low visibility._

_In other words, the winter storm had formed the ingredients for a perfect catastrophe... or the perfect escape!_

_Fighting against the fury of nature stands one man, pushing himself through bitter, frostbite-ridden temperatures._

_To an outside viewer, this man would appear fully unsuited for the fatally dangerous weather. No hat, no mittens, no coat... this man is unprepared for the weather to an outlandish degree. He bears a singular undergarment- the same item of clothing protecting the man from the cold and from being entirely unclothed._

_And this man never expected such sour weather… but a man like himself did not expect such an opportunity like this._

_A rare opportunity, a chance that would otherwise come once in a blue moon for him._

_The chance to escape._

"I get it now... so your old man doesn't have much info of his own, either," Rosalinda replied.

"Essentially, yes."

Celine looked up at the clouds. They were blurry and occasionally wavered.

She rubbed her eyes and looked again. The clouds returned to their normal state.

'Maybe that high joke was not so far off.'

Celine looked down to the fruits and vegetables below her.

Had they always been so blurry as well?

"Rosalinda, have you been noticing anything… strange?" Celine asked.

"What's your definition of strange?" Rosalinda replied.

"Things getting more blurry," Celine said, hopefully, Rosalinda would have some kind of answer.

"Celine, this isn't a joke or some side effect of that Stand you said you have?"

"My Stand has never done something like this before," Celine quickly replied.

Celine looked left and right. The other market displays seemed the same. Or normal, at least.

She took a step forward.

Suddenly, she was hit with a powerful scent of the soil.

"Rosalinda," Celine said somewhat annoyedly, "Stop this already."

"I'm not doing anything, I swear," Rosalinda replied. She gestured to Pantera, who was next to the booth, curled up behind a basket of some carrots.

Celine decided to sit down and clear her mind. However, things only became more cluttered and overloaded than before. Every little blade of grass that poked at her hands, every breeze that fluttered against her hair and face- she could feel it all in sudden, blindsiding detail.

What was also strange was the lack of another detail that had previously been sharpened itself. The smell of the ground had suddenly disappeared, as well as the smell of nearly everything else. She closed her eyes in the hopes that it would achieve something.

This only made it worse. The pointy grassy blades became more and more plentiful, the breeze cooler, and now it was as if a head cold entirely blocked her ability to use her nose.

Celine also heard a dim hum, like a guitar string vibrating after being plucked. The hum became louder and louder, though the frequency stayed the same. She stood up and promptly toppled backward on her heels.

Celine squinted as the blurry form of Rosalinda stood above her.

"My legs feel like jelly," Celine said, slowly standing up. "Or as if they have fallen asleep.

"Yeah?" Rosalinda replied as if that were normal. "To be honest, I don't know what's going on."

"Neither do I… I keep hearing a quiet humming noise," Celine admitted.

"You too? I thought I was just hearing things," Rosalinda replied as she steadied herself against the wooden counter.

"Yes. Everywhere," Celine said. "And it gets worse when I close my eyes."

She tightly closed her fist as she dug her fingers into her palms, if not to simply have something to anchor herself with.

'I have to do something about this before it gets worse…' Celine thought as a collection of other thoughts raced around in her mind.

'I really should call my mom sometime,' one helpfully suggested.

'Hmmm,' another hummed in the same frequency as the dim humming.

Celine shook her head if only to clear her mind for a moment.

Would it have been so hard for everything to just give her some peace and quiet for once?!

She heard the humming again, just as she was about to start to politely ask it to SHUT UP.

There it was again. The noise hummed in an almost mocking manner. It was still too faint to figure out where it was coming from.

She closed her eyes again. The breeze fluttered lightly against her arms. The dirt shifted underneath her shoes. She could hear the humming again.

She tried to find the source, the grass and dirt loudly crunching underneath as she walked. The humming was much louder now.

Celine opened her eyes and came face to face with a bug. A strange one, at that.

It was about the size of a baby, maybe even a toddler. Its orange-yellow eye-lenses were oversized on the size of the bug's thin head. The weight of them, or the size, caused the thing to hunch down a little.

From the head spouted two light yellow antennae, one curled upwards and the other drooped down slightly.

The similarly light yellow body was relatively small, like a short, squashed teardrop. Two translucent banana yellow (if bananas were translucent) wings constantly fluttered.

The limbs were also light yellow. There were two left limbs but only one right limb, however, the legs were equally numbered.

In a stroke of foolishness or just plain forgetfulness, Celine reached over to the bug, only for her hands to do nothing.

"Hmmm," the bug hummed, the noise transmitting from… somewhere. It had no mouth.

"Stupid, stupid! You can't harm Stands with your own self! Maybe I've messed up your mind already." It spoke with a slight buzz to every s, as if it was instead a z.

Celine blinked a few times as she tried to focus her sight on the bug.

"Since I already have you in this state, I'll introduce myself. The name's Music to Delight."

"You can speak?" Celine questioned as she stared up at it. It definitely didn't have a mouth.

"For your information, I speak for my User." It crossed one pair of arms.

"Well then, show yourself. Or at least, come down here," Celine demanded.

"No," Music to Delight said matter-of-factly.

Celine was about to call Rosalinda over, when the humming began again, even louder.

Celine looked away as the sun seemed to shine even brighter than before, and near instinctively, she activated Sunglasses at Night.

The darkness appeared again, but unfortunately, while this granted Celine freedom from being blinded, it made everything else (such as the humming) much worse. The humming became excruciatingly loud as if someone was holding a beehive up to a microphone.

Celine realized something.

"Rosalinda!" She yelled. Nearby, the farmer's market vendor winced as if someone had yelled near her ears.

"Over here!" Celine yelled, hopefully in a less loud voice.

"Okay," Rosalinda responded, in a volume that would have gotten her shushed in a library. She took a running start toward Celine, and after a close call with a stumble, she ended up directly in front of Music to Delight.

"Stop!" Music to Delight buzzed, and gave a hearty yet laughably weak shove. Yet it was enough for Rosalinda to lose her balance. Rosalinda, fortunately, did not fall down because a green panther had appeared behind her. Pantera glared up at Music to Delight as the bug flitted just above her reach.

Celine stood up slowly and she mentally counted her steps.

"Do you have something to do with that man, Slash?" Celine questioned.

Two hostile Stand Users back to back? Surely it was no coincidence.

"Maybe," Music to Delight replied. "But can you put the blame on me, if I do? His Stand and my stand, together? It's a force to be feared."

"Where is he?" Celine demanded, as she slowly and carefully made her way back to

Rosalinda. Surprisingly, the steps were much lighter and less hard on her ears.

Music to Delight gave a careless shrug.

"He was too impatient, or too early. Serves him right to get beaten without my help."

Celine finally made it over to Rosalinda. She glanced over at the insect Stand and then looked back to Rosalinda.

"It has no mouth," Celine said. "The humming gets weaker when it talks, so whatever transmits with does not share well."

"You have a plan?" Rosalinda asked.

"If I keep it talking, it may be weakened long enough for us to figure out where it transmits sound. Then, you use Pantera to attack."

Rosalinda nodded. "What about that 'User' it was talking about?"

"They will be our last resort. If you injure the Stand, usually the Stand User is also injured. We might not have to seek out the User if we absolutely have to."

They both nodded.

"You, Music to Light," Celine began.

"Music to DElight," the Stand corrected. "Right. Would you care to explain why you and Slash were working together?"

"I already explained it, didn't I? It's not your business any more than that."

"It IS my business. He tried to kill me," Celine said, and then added, "It seems he frustrates you."

"No, of course not. But… he did try to rename his Stand once," the bug Stand commented.

"I see," Celine replied as she nodded accordingly. Her head pounded less, and she could no longer feel the shifting of soil every time she took a slight step to the left or right.

"I said to him, 'you can't rename your Stand!' How annoying. At least I can keep my Stand's name."

"I have a question," Celine cut in. "You have no mouth."

"That's not a question." In the background, Pantera quietly snuck behind Music to Delight to the best of her abilities.

"When can I go home?" Celine demanded, with a fake tone of tiredness and annoyance. Or maybe the tone was real.

"No! Ugh, just when I thought you weren't being so- what?"

Celine activated Sunglasses at Night as Pantera slammed into Music to Delight.

For the next few seconds, there was a ruckus of low feline growls and panicked humming and buzzing noises. Celine winced as the sound of everything came back to pummel her ears, but was determined to keep her Stand's ability active if only for a few short moments.

Celine let the darkness up, and Music to Delight was much worse for wear. Even though Pantera had also experienced a sudden burst of awkward sensory overload, the heightened senses could not dull the sharpness of the claws that had been attacking Music to Delight.

Both its antennae hung weakly in front of its eyes. Parts of its delicate, thin wings had been torn or ripped off. It now had an equal number of arms.

"S-stupid!" Music to Delight angrily spat, and the z sounds were relievingly gone.

It managed to properly raise its antennae, and for a moment the dreaded humming resumed. Then the antennae flopped down and the humming disappeared altogether, along with any signs of overbearing sound or missing scents.

Pantera, whose senses had also fully returned, sprung at Music to Delight and began another flurry of sharp panther claws, pointy thorns, and easily tearable bug wings.

Once Pantera was done with her surprisingly vicious work, there wasn't much left of Music to Delight.

Music to Delight and its User were officially…

RETIRED.

* * *

Ch. 3 posted, hurrah!


	4. Post-Insect Cleanup

Celine, finally, was able to let her senses clear up. Thank goodness for the smell of the dirt.

Pantera disappeared as Rosalinda looked around and saw that it was getting late.

"I forgot! I have to close up shop," she said sheepishly, as she looked at her parents. They were putting things away together.

"Would you like to come with, Celine?" Rosalinda asked.

Celine shook her head and said no.

"No."

"Are you sure?" Rosalinda replied

Celine nodded her head. What about her groceries? She had gone to get more and now they were sitting on the ground in a bag, all sad and alone. Poor groceries.

"It's just a little bit of help, and then I'll leave you be with your produce," Rosalinda said.

To that, Celine gave a quiet sigh. If Rosalinda would continue to ask, then it would take even longer for her to get home. And if it would take longer to get home, it would take longer to put the groceries away and everything would be thrown out of balance.

"Alright Rosalinda, you win. I will help."

Rosalinda smiled as she walked over to her parents. The couple was putting things back in wooden crates of all sizes, and they were even putting away some of the displays.

"Mom, Dad, meet Celine, she's here to help," she explained as she gestured over to Celine with a wave.

"Hello," Celine said.

"Nice to meet you," Rosalinda's mother said. "We have a lot to do so we should get going soon."

"Alright," Rosalinda said, "Let's get to work."

The four of them put what had not been sold back in their boxes, and then put those boxes away. And then they stacked the put-away boxes. There were a lot of boxes involved, and it went quicker than expected thanks to Celine, who carried a surprising amount of boxes at a time.

They continued to do this until almost all of the boxes were put away, and now the task at hand was to take down the vendor stands and the signs.

Rosalinda and her mother were strategically placing the crates and leftover things so that they wouldn't fall over, which left Celine and Rosalinda's father to work together.

"So, um, you must have fun doing this?" Celine asked as she was pulling a sign out of the ground. "The farmer's market, I mean."

"Well, I'd say I have a nice time doing it. Rosalinda seems to like it, too."

Celine thought of a response.

"How long have you been doing this farmer's market?"

"For quite a few years before Rosalinda was born, actually."

"Doing that together for so long… you must be very close, yes?"

"Well, of course, we are. We all look forward to this each year."

"Right," Celine said.

"How long have you been friends with Rosalinda?" The man asked.

It hadn't been long. It hadn't even been a day. Was she even friends with Rosalinda, or did she just consider her a kind stranger?

"Only a few hours," Celine admitted.

Rosalinda's father smiled.

"I guess Rosalinda just makes friends easily," he said with pride in his voice.

"Yeah," Celine said simply as she looked over to Rosalinda. She was still putting crates away, but there were less to stack than before.

Celine looked down at the ground in thought and noticed that she hadn't pulled the sign out yet. With one tug she pulled the sign clean out of the ground, and she set it down next to her feet.

"Rosalinda," Celine said as she walked over to the other woman. "It seems that we are almost done for the day."

Rosalinda nodded.

"Yup."

There wasn't much to be said. In fact, there was so much that wasn't to be said that there were a few moments of silence between the two.

"Still thinking about that bug attack?" Rosalinda asked.

"Yes," Celine lied. "That was the second time this has happened in a very short time."

"You mean are more of those things out there? Why do they keep attacking you like that?" Rosalinda asked in disbelief.

"It is just my bad luck. It happens more often than you would think. You are minding your own business and then an attack happens out of nowhere."

"Do you know who does all this?" Rosalinda asked as she was lucky enough to escape the Stand-on-Stand chaos that most Stand Users had experienced.

"No," Celine said as she shook her head. "Not usually."

"Hm. What do we do about Music to Delight? If we leave it be, it could just come back for us again."

Celine looked over at the spot where Music to Delight was. The spot was empty, with not a trace of the Stand having ever been there.

"I do not think that will happen soon," Celine commented.

Rosalinda looked over at the spot as well and then did a double-take.

"It escaped?" She said in disbelief. "That means it could still attack us."

Celine shook her head.

"Stands usually disappear when their User has been defeated," Celine explained. "It cannot come back for us, now."

Of course, there was the possibility that Music to Delight had actually escaped, but Pantera had attacked so viciously that she doubted that the bothersome bug would come back without outside help. Of course, while she didn't mention it to Rosalinda, she kept it in the back of her mind just for consideration.

"Well, if it ever wants to come back, we know what to do," Rosalinda said with a reassuring look. "Anything else you want to tell me?"

"Not about Stands, no. I am tired of dealing with them so far, and I do not want to over-explain anything. I would rather talk about, how your farmer's market went yesterday?"

It was more like a question than an answer.

"We've been doing it for three days so far, and I think it went well."

"You have been doing it for three whole days, now? I could have gone here instead of getting attacked by some mob-creating lunatic."

"You aren't talking about the panic yesterday, right, the one with the guy who had his shirt cut up?"

"Sorry, but it was. And if you must know, he also took scissors to his pants."

"Did you get his name?" Rosalinda asked, concernedly.

"He called himself Slash, and he ran away before anybody could catch him. For all we know, he could still be out there trying to find me again."

Rosalinda frowned.

"Are you gonna try to find him? You can't just let someone like that go free."

"How would I? It is not like he gave me a card. And if I try to look for him directly I will just be walking right into the jaws of a lion."

"It's worth if he's not causing a mob again," Rosalinda said. "I heard that 47 people have been badly injured. You can't just let it go like that."

Celine shook her head.

"Alright, if I come across him again, I will stop him. But fighting someone with a Stand is dangerous. He could come back with something I am not expecting."

"You have me."

"What?" Celine asked in confusion.

"I said, you have me," Rosalinda replied. "There's no way I'm going to let somebody attack you like that again."

"I do not get it… I just met you today. My bad luck brought someone to attack us."

"And I helped you. And then you helped my parents."

"Anyone would have done that," Celine said as she shook her head. "That does not mean I am special."

"And not just anyone has a magic pair of sunglasses," Rosalinda pointed out. "You're also the first person to tell me about these Stand things."

"That is true… but still, you do not have to go and fight for my honor for something. I will just put you in danger again."

"Just because people try to kill you, doesn't mean it's your fault, you know?"

"My bad luck naturally draws people with both Stands and bad intentions to me. And that means that they will also have bad intentions toward you."

"It would be better if you didn't have to fight alone," Rosalinda said. "You faced the Slash guy alone, and he left dozens of people injured and almost killed."

"I handled it," Celine replied. "I am still alive."

"And if he comes back, you're going to fight him alone?"

"That is my plan."

"I could always help you with that plan," Rosalinda offered.

"Rosalinda, no," Celine replied. "I will not put you in danger like that."

"I know you're concerned for me, but I have that Stand just like you do. And I'm not going to put you in danger by leaving you to fight someone alone."

Celine went silent.

"Rosalinda, are you absolutely sure about this?" she asked.

"I don't have to be absolutely sure, I just have to be sure enough to know that I want to help you."

"And you are okay with helping me even though it has only been a few hours?"

"We already fought Music to Delight together. And I have Pantera, too."

"Are you sure your parents are okay with this?"

"I'm not exactly a kid anymore," Rosalinda said with a smile as she looked over at her parents. "Though, I'll tell them about it first."

"Am I supposed to make you sign a waiver or a form now?" Celine asked suddenly.

"What?" Rosalinda said in confusion.

"I do not know," Celine replied unsurely. "I have never really done something like this before."

"Neither have I," Rosalinda said. "We'll just have to figure it out together."

'Right,' Celine thought to herself. 'Together, even though I should have already figured this out by this point.'

"So is that a yes?" Rosalinda asked. "At least to helping you out for a while?"

"I will have to think about it," Celine quickly replied. "And then, after that, I can give you an answer."

"I sure hope that doesn't mean no," Rosalinda said and shook her head. "Now, how about we talk about something else. I've been going on about this for too long, what do you want to talk about?"

"Well, what do _you_ want to talk about?" Celine replied.

"Hm…" Rosalinda said, and she turned around to look at her parents.

"Mom, can you see these?" She called as she pointed to Sunglasses At Night.

"Yes, why?" Her mother replied with a strange look on her face.

"Never mind," Rosalinda called as she turned back to Celine.

"Celine, why can my mom see your Stand?" She asked.

"Because Sunglasses At Night is the Stand and the sunglasses at the same time," Celine explained. "So I can use it as a Stand and also as a pair of normal sunglasses."

"Can you make them disappear like I can with Pantera?"

Celine shook her head.

"No, but it works better since I usually wear them as actual sunglasses."

"Nice," Rosalinda said with a smile. "Can I try them on to see how they work?"

"No," Celine said defensively. "You cannot try them on. And, they just work like normal sunglasses do, aside from the Stand part."

Rosalinda nodded and looked over at her parents again. They were almost done loading up all of the various things, stuff, and other nondescript items.

"It looks like they're almost done," Rosalinda commented.

"I should get going soon," Celine sighed. "The groceries I bought are probably already bad by now."

"Most of them can last a few days. Just store them properly and then they'll be fine," Rosalinda explained helpfully.

"I see, I should get going sometime soon though."

"Are you able to meet up with me tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow? But that is so soon. I have things to do tomorrow, and I cannot just put it in my plans for the day on such short notice. That would ruin everything, and then I would have to schedule even more things for tomorrow. Of course, I could move getting the new curtains to tomorrow instead… Would 4 PM work for you?"

Rosalinda was silent for a moment, as she was still taking in Celine's out-loud thought process. She came back to her senses and nodded.

"Yeah, it will," she replied with an easygoing smile. "Where should we meet up? Here?"

"That will work just fine," Celine replied as she made a mental note to write this down in her plans for tomorrow.

"Sounds like a plan then," Rosalinda said and nodded. "I'll see you here tomorrow, at 4."

Celine nodded as well. It did sound like a plan, and more importantly, one that she could put in her schedule. Of course, she would now have to take less time to buy curtains so that she could comfortably fit both it and meeting with Rosalinda into tomorrow's schedule. Now she just needed everything to go right so that she didn't have to postpone random little things anymore.

"It does, now I really should g-"

"Excuse me. I have a question," a quiet voice suddenly said from behind Rosalinda and Celine. They silently turned around to look at the source.

"Will you be open tomorrow?"


	5. Peanut Butter and Clown Sandwich

"Will you be open tomorrow?"

Celine and Rosalinda turned around to see someone behind them.

It happened to be a young man with hair the color of peanut butter. He was wearing a long-sleeve white shirt and dark brown pants. Curled around his shoulders was a fluffy purple boa, and he had a belt of a similar color.

Rosalinda shook her head.

"Sorry, but we closed up today. You'll have to wait until next time," she said.

"I figured," the stranger replied. "I've been watching you guys put away boxes for a while now."

"How long have you been standing there?" Celine asked.

"Awhile," the stranger said vaguely.

"And how long would that be?" Celine pressed.

The stranger fell silent for a few moments.

"About an hour."

Celine and Rosalinda looked at each other in disbelief.

"An hour and I did not notice you?" Celine asked suspiciously.

"Yeah, I tend to do that sometimes."

'I will have to accept that explanation for now,' Celine figured.

"So, what is your name?" Celine asked, she decided to skip directly to the formalities.

"Just call me Dani," the stranger replied.

"Okay Dani," Rosalinda said. "You can go now, I don't wanna upset you any longer. We've packed up."

"But I don't want to leave," Dani said. "You two say some interesting stuff."

"You… Heard that?" Celine said slowly.

"Yep. You guys aren't good at whispering. "

"Well then, forget it. All of it. It is none of your business," Celine said defensively.

"Woah, no need to get in another fight today, we've already had enough of those," Rosalinda said.

"You guys were in a fight? I didn't hear that, but I'd like to hear it now."

"No, you would not," Celine said firmly. "The market is over, so you can leave now."

"I guess you'll just have to make me," Dani said.

"And I will," Celine replied, as she walked right past Rosalinda.

"I will say it one more time: please leave."

No?" Danny said quietly. "I mean- no."

"OK, maybe, instead of forcefully making someone leave in a way we might regret, you go and I'll remember to give you a discount next time," Rosalinda cut in suddenly.

"Rosalinda, you do not have to play peacemaker this time. I can handle this," Celine said.

"I'm not playing peacemaker, it's late and my parents are over there. I don't want to fight for no reason when they're around."

"Yeah!" Dani said, "Don't fight me."

"But you said that I would have to make you leave?" Celine question.

"That was just a sound cool. You guys were talking about wild stuff, and I just wanted to hear about it. I thought if I stayed here you would tell me."

"So… you tried to make me mad?"

"I thought if I sounded cool you would think I was serious enough to keep the secrets," Dani said sheepishly.

"Making my friend angry is no way to learn secrets," Rosalinda said.

"You just sound like a fool when you act like that," Celine added.

"I'm no fool, and I can prove it!" Dani claimed. "We'll have a fight, and if I win, you'll tell me all about those secrets."

"Okay," Rosalinda said as Pantera appeared beside her. "You're on. Celine, do you mind sitting this one out?"

"For fairness?" Celine guessed.

"Yeah. For fairness."

"Only if I get to watch and commentate."

"Sure," Rosalinda said. "Okay, Dani, time to show me your Stand."

"Okay, here I go!"

A green blorb, otherwise known as a blob orb, the size of a basketball appeared from behind Dani. It had two triangle eyes pointing in opposite directions, and two grinning mouths with blindingly white teeth. Six two-clawed hands slowly circled around the blorb.

"This is Hozde, whatwasitcalled? My Stand!"

"This is my Stand, Pantera," Rosalinda said as she gestured to Pantera.

The hands around Hoz began to spin rapidly as a strange green goo formed between the claws. Two hands flung the goo at Pantera but she quickly dodged it. The rest of the hands threw the goop straight down, forming a medium sized wall between Pantera and Hozde.

Pantera was quick to try to pounce on Hozde, but she was quickly stopped by the wall.

"Pantera has been stopped," Celine pointed out. "But is this the only ability that Hozde has?"

Hozde sucked the goo back into its hands and threw several smallish blobs at Pantera's feet.

Pantera nimbly dodged most of them, weaving around as globs of green landed on the ground.

Then, one of the blobs hit Pantera in the face right near the eyes. She took a second to get back to her senses but it was too late.

Hozde flung a larger, collected blob of goo at Pantera's legs. It landed on her front feet. No matter how much Pantera tried to wriggle out of the goo ball, her feet were firmly stuck.

"Pantera is stuck, could this really be Hozde's ability? She has to be careful from here…" Celine commentated as she watched the Stand battle go on.

Without a moment more to lose, Pantera tapped the ground with her , a small stem grew out of the ground and burst into vines around Hozde.

They curled around the orb as vines turned to branches, and from branches grew thorns. The branches squeezed tighter and tighter around Hozde as scrapes and scratches appeared on Dani.

Hozde tried to pry the thorny branches away and managed to move some. With the spare hands, the orb-shaped Stand tried to cover the sharpest thorns in goo.

The goo formed around the thorn tips like safety covers. The rest of the thorns, however, continued to squeeze at Hozde.

Hozde put a few of its hands on the less thorny branches and pulled on the branches. It added more and more hands until all of them were on a fairly large branch, and then it broke.

"Is Hozde starting to break free?" Celine asked as she watched three of the hands rise out of the brush.

Most of the goo returned to Hozde as it tried to hurl more at Pantera. Pantera growled as small splatters of goop hit her face. She tried to pull forward one last time, but the goo held firm.

Then, in her anger, some of the branches sprouted clusters of leaves everywhere, blocking Hozde from view.

The branches began to close in even further and kept Hozde's hands from prying away any more of the branches.

More and more cuts appeared on Dani as he bit his lip nearly to the point of drawing blood. Finally, suddenly, he cried out.

"I give up!"

Hozde brought all the goo back into its claws, which freed Pantera.

Pantera growled angrily at Hozde until Rosalinda spoke up.

"Okay," she said as Pantera touched the ground with her nose. The brush's branches parted to allow Hozde to move freely again. Then, finally, the brush shrunk to a small enough size that it wouldn't be a nuisance to anyone or anything.

"I lost," Dani said in a defeated tone.

"That is right, you did lose," Celine said in a relieved tone.

"Now, Dani, what did you want to know about Stands?" Rosalinda asked.

"Why are you giving him information? He lost," Celine cut in before Dani could say anything. "Do not tell me this is a 'test of character' or something."

"Well, I'm still going to tell him about Stands, just none of the secrets we talked about."

"I'd like that," Dani said.

As Rosalinda and Dani began to speak, Celine thought she heard something. Footsteps, perhaps?

She turned around and spotted someone different, someone new.

Someone who was standing by Rosalinda's parents. And juggling.

Juggling!

Celine walked over to the mystery stranger.

"Excuse me," Celine said to them. "Who are you?"

They turned around. It was someone dressed in a brightly colored shirt with a wavy collar and wavy sleeve-ends, that went down to their hips and very puffy shorts.

"Hello!" They said with a smile as they were pulling a ridiculously long scarf out of their left sleeve. "I'm Alison, a local and friendly clown."

"Are you actually a clown?" Celine asked.

"Why, of course I am! Would a clown ever lie?"

"Yes?" Celine said uncomfortably.

Meanwhile Rosalinda looked over at Celine and saw that she was standing next to a stranger.

"Celine, who's that?"

"A clown named Alison," Celine said as she stared over at the jolly clown.

"Why is a clown here?" Dani added.

"I have no idea."

"Just come on over here and I can tell you!" Alison called.

"Actually I was about to leave-"

"Leave? What for? Don't you want to be entertained? Don't you want to have fun?"

Celine silently backed up all the way to Dani and Rosalinda, but Alison eagerly followed her.

"It's very nice to meet all of you," Alison said with a smile.

"Uh… thanks," Dani said as he hid behind Rosalinda.

"Rosalinda, we were just about to go," Celine added. "Can we just make this clown go away?"

"And why would you want me to leave?" Alison said with an exaggerated frown.

"Because I want to go home," Celine explained.

"Well, don't you want to have fun first? You wouldn't leave before I'm done, would you?"

"I don't know…" Rosalinda said lightly, "We're very busy today."

"Just stay for a little while, won't you?" Alison said. "For a little trick?"

The clown was acting suspicious, very suspicious.

"Alright," Celine said with a sigh.

"Okay then! Here is my trick, one, two, three!"

A figure jumped out from behind Alison and grabbed onto Celine's right hand. It came clean off with no blood, and the figure began to effortlessly toss Celine's hand around in the air.

"Wha-?!" Celine cried as she watched her hand being juggled around.

"Don't you like my trick? There's still more to come!"

"What is that?" Rosalinda said as she stepped forward aggressively.

"It's The Gladiators, of course! My loyal , unfailing partner!"

The Gladiators fully revealed itself. It was blindingly colorful and obnoxiously bouncy, like a living wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man. It had four arms with bouncy balls for hands, and no fingers. The legs were the same, except that there were only two legs instead of four.

"Give me my hand back right now," Celine said as she watched The Gladiators continued to juggle her hand.

"No thank you," Alison said and smiled, as The Gladiators lunged for Celine and tried to take her other hand. Celine leaked back as if she was playing the world's most intense game of limbo. Then, Pantera reappeared, snarled, and went right for The Gladiators' neon-pink midsection.

Unfortunately, this did not go well, because The Gladiators' second pair of arms grabbed onto Pantera. After this, The Gladiators began to juggle both of Pantera's left legs.

Rosalinda suddenly fell onto her knees. She tried to get up but fell again.

"Hey, are you okay?" Dani asked as watched Rosalinda fail to stand up.

"I can't feel my legs anymore," Rosalinda replied as she patted her thigh.

"Stop juggling our limbs before I change my mind about wanting to see your trick," Celine demanded as she pointed with her arm.

"Oh, okay!" Alison said mischievously. "It's time for you to show you my second trick. The Entrance!"

Then, everyone's limbs returned– but something was wrong. Very, very wrong.

Celine had Pantera's legs instead of her hands, and Pantera's legs were replaced with Celine's hands.

Rosalinda tried to stand up, but instead did a handstand.

Dani watched all of this with wide eyes as he hid behind Rosalinda.

"Why, you-" Celine began.

"Why, what? I gave you your limbs back. I stopped juggling," Alison said with a laugh.

"Listen," Rosalinda said as she stopped her handstand. "You did your trick, now leave us alone."

"Definitely not," Alison replied. "And if I were you, I'd stop trying to fight me."

She crossed her arms as she said this. Meanwhile, Rosalinda frowned.

"Well, what do you really want, then?" Celine said as she touched one of Pantera's- no, her own- claws. "Last time I remembered, normal clowns do not go around and randomly mix up limbs."

Alison laughed again, a high and silly laugh.

"Now that's a simple answer," Alison replied as The Gladiators idly bounced behind her.

"I've come to fight you, and only you. Now, that might be up to change if some people-" she looked over at Rosalinda, "interfere."

Then, The Gladiators bounced forward again.

"Now, for my last trick, I'm going to kill you piece by piece!"


	6. When Clowns Attack

"Now, for my last trick, I'm going to kill you, piece by piece!"

The Gladiators sprung forward at Celine with all four of its arms outstretched. Celine quickly stepped back to try to dodge, leaving space between the two of them.

"Kill me piece by piece? So are you going to kill all of my pieces?" Celine asked as she attempted to dodge another one of The Gladiators' advances.

Pantera, meanwhile, was trying to figure out how to move around with incredibly shortened legs. She glared at The Gladiators as she gently tapped the ground with her nose again.

Great blades of grass sprung up from the ground and started to extend toward The Gladiators. Grassy greens coiled around the opposing Stand's legs. Alison by extension was stuck as well.

"Hey! Get me outta here!" Alison said as The Gladiators touched some of the oversized blades of grass and began to juggle them.

However, this didn't achieve much. There were too many blades of grass around The Gladiators, and they were slowly growing up to the Stand's upper legs and torso.

With The Gladiators entangled, Pantera sprung forward using her back legs. She aimed right for the middle of the opposing Stand's body.

"Aha!" Alison exclaimed, and as she did The Gladiators wrapped one pair of arms around Pantera. The other pair was nonchalantly tossing around Celine's left hand and Pantera's back legs. Pantera snarled and bit at The Gladiator's elbow.

"Agh!" Alison cried as her elbow began to bleed, she then commanded The Gladiators to chuck Pantera away. The plant panther didn't go far, but it was enough that there was a considerable amount of distance between the two. The grass unraveled and returned to its normal, yet still tall, state.

"Over here," came a voice suddenly next to Alison. Before she could turn around, a set of claws slashed at her cheek.

"What! I thought I chucked that cat halfway across town," Alison said as The Gladiators quickly reappeared in front of her. But the one Alison saw was not Pantera, rather it was Celine and her brand new arm extension.

"In case you have forgotten, not all of Pantera is in one place."

Alison continued to hide behind The Gladiators as her Stand leaned down to look at Celine's newly obtained claws.

Celine went for another attack, this time it was a wide swing directed at The Gladiators' midsection.

"Ah ah ah, not so fast!"

The Gladiators leaned over Celine as it suddenly touched both her newly acquired panther leg and Alison's arm at the same time. It toppled backward, but not before swapping Alison's arm and Pantera's leg.

"Now I have the upper... leg!" Alison cried as she went for a full-body tackle. She tried to pin Celine to the ground, but unfortunately, her strength wasn't enough.

Celine pushed Alison off of her and stood up.

Alison was quick to retaliate, however in an unexpected way. She slammed her palm, also known as Pantera's paw, onto the ground. Within a few seconds, an overgrown flower wrapped itself around Celine's foot.

"Now try this!" Alison shouted as Celine's left foot began to sink into the ground, pulled into the soil by the flower's sturdy stem and anchored there by oversized roots.

"Can't wait to watch you drown in the dirt," the clown said with a smug grin.

Meanwhile, Pantera reappeared next to Rosalinda. She looked at Rosalinda and then to Alison, stuck between the orders of two different people. So stuck, in fact, that she looked like a robot that could only move its neck.

Celine, who was already torso deep into the ground, decided she didn't want to be buried alive today. She wriggled around a little until one of her pant legs hiked up and scandalously revealed her ankle.

"I wouldn't even try, it'll take a year and a week to wiggle outta those!" Alison announced, she was preparing to remove even more of Celine's body parts.

But underneath the ground, Celine's strategy wasn't to shimmy her way out of the roots. Instead, she was using one of the many confusing traits that had been passed down to her.

This was the power to corrode things with her very skin, allowing her to consume most anything. It raised many questions such as 'why do I have teeth if I can just eat things with my body?' but unfortunately at the moment she had more important things to think about, such as trying to get herself out of the roots.

The Gladiators loomed over her now, and its arms were ready to juggle again. They were extending out as they closed in around Celine's head.

"Maybe I'll use your severed head in a brand new act, huh?" Alison taunted as she glared down at Celine, but she still stood behind The Gladiators.

"How about you do nothing and leave me alone..." Celine replied. The dirt was up to her shoulders now, but the roots were quickly being eaten away.

She heard a quiet swish of movement to her left, but she chose to ignore it since she was dealing with other things at the moment.

"I told you already, we're fighting," Alison said as she looked down at Celine. The Gladiators was next to her, its arms raised but standing idly.

'What is it with all these people and trying to kill me...' Celine thought to herself. Alison continued to smile mockingly down at her. The Gladiators towered above the both of them, its arms outstretched but not yet to Celine.

Then Celine's arm burst out of the ground and threw dirt in Alison's face.

'This should buy me some time,' Celine thought as she pulled herself free.

"Ah- ow! It's in my eye, ow ow!" Alison cried out.

Celine started to dash shoulder-first over to Alison. Unfortunately, The Gladiators had moved in front of the colorful clown.

Boingggggg was the sound that The Gladiators made as it flung Celine back. She hit the ground and slid against the soil. When she came to a stop she was sprawled face down on the ground and spat some soil out of her mouth.

Alison finally got the dirt out of her eye.

"You were supposed to stay in the dirt, how did you get out?" Alison demanded.

"A little secret of mine. Now, I would like my arm back," Celine replied as she slowly got up.

"Oh, boo-hoo," Alison said with an overexaggerated frown. "You're vulnerable! So now I'll-"

The Gladiators touched Celine's neck, but no beheading happened.

"I said, I'll-" Alison continued as The Gladiators tried to misplace Celine's shoulder this time.

"What's going on here?" Alison demanded as she peered over at The Gladiators. "Huh?"

There was something on The Gladiators' hand-orbs, specifically, blobby green goo.

"Very gooey! But what's it doing here?" Alison said, and then she commanded The Gladiators to get the goo off. The stand flailed its arms in a wacky inflatable way, but the goo stubbornly stayed on.

Meanwhile, everyone's limbs suddenly returned to their rightful places.

"You're supposed to be losing, not me," Alison protested.

"I don't really think you should do that," Dani said as he stepped out from behind The Gladiators. Hozde floated behind him, it grinned mischievously. Dani then shook his head.

"I mean- I won't let you hurt them."

"Stop getting in the middle of my fight!" Alison grumbled. "The Gladiators, get him!"

The Gladiators attempted to headbutt Dani. Dani flinched, but the tall tube-shaped stand harmlessly bumped against Dani's forehead.

"Fine, I'll do it," she said, then she grabbed onto Dani. After this, she bit Dani's arm.

Dani cried out, he tried to push the angered clown off of his arm but it didn't work.

"Ha!" Alison said though the words were slightly messed up since she still had her mouth on Dani's arm.

Alison went to bite Dani again.

"Step away from the man," a voice said from behind her.

"What?" Alison said.

Celine, Dani, and Rosalinda peeked over to see who it was.

It was two police officers, and on the side of the road was their police car.

"Ma'am. Do you know why we're here today?" the second officer asked.

"You want to watch me do a trick?" Alison asked as she pulled a three of spades out of her sleeve. The officers weren't impressed.

"Alison Yan, you're under arrest for one count of assault, three counts count of major theft, and one avoided warrant in the state of Delaware."

Alison immediately attempted to run away but the first officer caught her.

"You aren't going anywhere," the officer said. "At least, not without us."

"You're gonna eat those words!" Alison said as she pointed dramatically, but The Gladiators was still unable to use its ability. Its top half flopped over and was no longer wacky, waving, or arm flailing.

"Right," the first officer said as they put a pair of handcuffs on Alison.

Celine stepped back and looked over to Rosalinda.

"Did you order a clown?" Celine asked as she glanced over to Alison, who had the sad expression of a broken clown.

"No clue why she wanted to attack you so badly," Rosalinda said, then she turned to Dani.

"You okay? Do I need to put ice on that?" she asked concernedly, looking at the bite mark.

"No thanks," Dani said. "As long as it's not bleeding, I think I'll be good. Right?"

"Now hold on a second," Rosalinda said, as Pantera once again tapped the ground with her nose. A plant made up of tall green spikes sprouted from the ground, and Rosalinda broke off part of one of the spikes. Inside was a clear gel.

"Wh-what's that?" Dani asked as he pulled his arm away.

"Aloe vera," Rosalinda said as she put some of the gel on Dani. "You've never heard of it before?"

"I have," Dani said slightly defensively. "I just... didn't know what the plant looked like."

Rosalinda nodded. "That's fine, just put a bandage on this later alright?"

"Fine..." Dani admitted. "I'll, you know, do it later."

After that, the two officers drove off with Alison. The whole time she was being placed in the car, the clown had the same sad look on her face.

"Well," Celine said. "We are still good to meet here tomorrow, yes?"

"I don't see why not," Rosalinda agreed with a nod. "I'll be here, you have my word on it."

"Right, then. Goodbye, Rosalinda, see you tomorrow. And you," Celine said as she looked over at Dani. "...Goodbye to you too."

With that, she turned around, grabbed the bag of produce, and walked off.

It was just evening, but Celine still had some time to kill. She decided to take the long route home and used Sunglasses At Night once or twice on the way.

Once she ended up outside her little old house, she stood outside and waited. Stood there and waited, until a certain truck arrived. Finally, finally, it was here.

"Yes thank heavens, you made it," Celine said to the person who stepped out of the truck.

"You know, I probably had to go through the window so many times someone has probably thought I was, you know, a burglar. Imagine that..." she said, with a halfhearted laugh.

The person in question happened to be a combination of handyman and locksmith. Which was exactly what Celine had needed. The handyman set onto his work, as Celine silently waited and leaned against a wall.

A nondescript amount of time later, and the handyman was done.

Celine was now able to enter her own house without having to shimmy the window open.

She thanked the handyman, paid him, and she finally got to walk inside with a brand new set of keys. Ah, the sweet relief of being able to use the door to get in for once. She had missed getting inside that way. Hopefully, her locks wouldn't jam again.

After yet another hectic day, Celine walked inside and closed the door behind her.


	7. Sudden Neck Problems

It was the start of another day. And once Celine prepared herself for this day, she pulled out the gray brick that she called a phone and began to dial in a number.

Beep boop bop beep. Ring, ring, ring…

"Hello? You've reached Abba Grayley, who is this?" The voice on the other end was creaky and elderly.

"Hello, mom. Celine speaking here," Celine answered. Her usual stilted tone was replaced with something more casual, like going home after a day of work and putting on some bunny slippers.

"Oh, Celine!" The voice on the other end perked up.. "Why, it's wonderful to hear from you again!"

"I can say the same for you," Celine replied. "How have you been?"

"Well, it's just the same soup reheated as usual… but good soup! Oh, but enough about me, of course. Is the city still treating you well?"

"I have had my ups and downs," Celine said with a sigh.

"Oh, I know that sound from anywhere," Abba said. "Why, it sounds like there's been more downs than ups for you. What happened, dear?"

"A man tried to beat me up. And then a clown attacked me."

"Oh my. When did this happen?" The elderly woman asked, her voice quickly shifted from peppy to concerned.

"Yesterday, and then the day before that."

"Goodness, Celine, why didn't you call me earlier? Oh, this sounds so worrying…"

"I know how you get when you are worried, mom. Trust me, I am fine. Everything is fine," Celine assured her mother.

Everything was not fine.

"Well, if you don't want to talk about it, I won't press any further," Abba said. Then there was a pause between the two.

"...have you seen your father lately?"

It was a sudden, out-of-the-blue kind of question. One that they both knew couldn't be avoided. It always came up.

"Surprisingly, yes. I was minding my own business two weeks ago, when he showed up in my house."

"That's great to hear. Did you two have fun?"

Celine frowned slightly, but then she realized her mother couldn't see that over the phone.

"I almost had a heart attack, mom. I thought a burglar broke in!" She spoke exasperatedly.

"Oh, I see… how long did he stay for, then?"

"I kicked him out the next morning," Celine admitted. "I know this sounds rude, but… I have things to do, things other than waking up at 3 am to find my own father sitting in my basement."

Celine sighed again.

"Oh," Abba said quietly.. "I shouldn't have brought that up. I'm sorry, dear."

"No, no. It is not your fault… he was the one who ended up in my house, not you."

"Well, that aside, anything in your 'ups' category lately, Celine?"

"I went to a farmer's market and met someone's pet cat. Oh, and I met this weird kid. He was nice enough though."

"Well, that's wonderful! I'm so glad that my little Celine is all grown up, living in the city and making friends," Abba spoke happily.

"Mom."

"It feels like it was just yesterday when you were shorter than me. And you were the most adorable little thing too."

"Mom. Please stop."

"Oh, alright, if you really want me to."

"Thank you," Celine sighed in relief.

There were a few seconds of white noise on Abba's end, like someone else was speaking.

"Anni, Frid, what are you two doing back there? Oh, don't touch that please, you're going to make it all fall over!" Abba suddenly spoke in a nervous tone. There were more background sounds, two distant voices on the other end of the call.

"Celine, I'm so sorry, I have to go. You'd understand, right? I love you dear, goodbye!"

Click. Her mother had hung up so quickly.

Oh well.

Celine put the phone back in her pocket and zipped that pocket back up.

And so the day went on, with a nearly endless list of small tasks that didn't really matter. Minutes melted into hours. Yet here was Celine in the middle of these unending chores, seemingly unbothered by the repetition of it all.

Suddenly Celine remembered that she couldn't just spend the whole day inside. There was still the matter of buying those new curtains, and… Rosalinda! Of course.

She couldn't just leave Rosalinda alone like that, not after the promise of being there. So Celine stopped whatever tiny task she was in the middle of doing. She threw her coat on, and started walking.

It wasn't long until she ended up at the place where all the wooden stalls were just yesterday. Rosalinda was there, as expected, but also… Dani?

"Dani, uh, might I ask why you are here?" Celine asked as she looked over to the young man.

"That's simple. You guys still suck at whispering. I heard you talking all about how you were meeting up here so I thought, I'll be there, too."

Rosalinda shrugged.

"He wasn't hurting anything, so I let him stay. This is a public place anyway, I don't see why he can't be here."

Celine sighed again. "Alright," she said.

"Hey I have a very important question to ask," Dani said in rapid fire succession. "Celine, why do clowns hate you?"

Celine looked over at him with a strange look, though it was lost due to the dark lenses of her Stand.

"Clowns do not hate me," Celine replied firmly. "They never have, they never will."

"What about the clown that tried to kill you?"

"That was an exception. Do you have any other, non-clown related questions for me?"

Rosalinda spoke up before Dani could ask another ridiculous question.

"To tell ya the truth, I thought it was strange too," she pointed out. "I mean, this is the third time it's happened to ya, right? That guy, the bug, and now this clown."

"I already told you that part. Sometimes my bad luck just.. it just makes a clown want to attack me. Now please, can we talk about something else? Anything else."

Dani raised his hand.

"I swear this isn't about that clown," he spoke to the two of them. "I have a lot of questions about what happened yesterday."

From the back pocket of his pants he pulled a notepad full of scrawled questions ranging from mundane to strange.

Rosalinda gave him a smile and slowly pushed the notepad down.

"I'm gonna stop ya right there. I don't know much about Stands, I only learned about them through Celine. Before ya drown her in words, let's take a second for us to talk, just the two of us."

Dani frowned and put the notepad back in his pocket.

Rosalinda turned to Celine, and Celine turned to Rosalinda. They both shuffled off to the side in a little huddle.

"I am still not sure about him being here," Celine said.

"C'mon. You can't say that about him, he's just learned about these Stands too," Rosalinda replied. "If you were in his shoes, you'd wanna know what it all means."

"The clown bit him. What if something terrible like that happens again? Surely has more interesting things to do."

"I don't," Dani called from where he was standing. "You guys still suck at talking in private. It's like I'm standing next to you, but I'm not."

In a sudden act of motion, Celine's head whipped back to look at Dani. Whipped, exactly, wasn't the best term. It more accurately swiveled around like the head of an owl.

"Celine!" Both Dani and Rosalinda cried.

Celine was silent for a few moments, not fully comprehending what those two were so taken aback for. Then she looked down, and realized that she saw her own back.

"Damn it, not this again!" She spoke annoyedly, a surprising tone for someone whose neck seemed to be broken.

Then, just as quickly as it had done before, her head swiveled back. As if nothing had ever happened.

"Celine, do I need to call the hospital? What just happened?" Rosalinda said, her concern was still there.

"I am fine, I swear. This has happened before, but usually not on its own," Celine spoke, trying to calm Rosalinda down. She stepped forward as if to show that she was okay and she wasn't hurt.

Dani, on the other hand, was speechless. He staggered backwards for a few steps, still silent.

"Dani?" Rosalinda asked quietly. "You okay in there?"

Suddenly he began to speak, like the floodgates opened up all at once in his head.

"How did you do that? Can you do it again? How does it work? How long have you been able to do that?"

So many questions, all at once. Celine herself stepped back, unable to handle Dani's rapid fire questioning.

"It was something my- my father could do," Celine spoke, continually stepping a good distance away from Dani. "He could do it, now I can do it."

Rosalinda looked to the two of them. She of course, knew the father Celine referred to wasn't exactly normal in the first place.

"Are you half owl, half person?" Dani further questioned.

Celine stopped stepping back, she stayed in place. It was too much. Something had to be said.

"I can explain it all," she said though her voice was shaky. "Just stop talking. Stop."

Dani fell silent, eager to hear what Celine had to say. What could possibly be the explanation for all this?

And then, Celine did explain it. She told Dani that she wasn't, in fact, fully human. She spoke of her father's strange condition, and how she shared it. It wasn't often that she did this for others, but it seemed like Dani would never stop questioning her if she stayed shut about it.

"Woah," Dani said in a hushed tone. After all he had heard, he could only muster a few words. "Is that true?"

"She told me the same thing, so I sure hope it is," Rosalinda commented.

"You can trust me on this," Celine spoke. She hoped they believed her.

"That's so incredible-" Dani continued, his voice was starstruck. "How come you don't tell more people about it?"

"I do not like to. I only do it when I have to, and when there is no other explanation. Also, Dani. Please do not tell other people about this."

Dani nodded, and then he looked over at Rosalinda.

"This has been the most interesting two days of my life."

His starry gaze broke into an uncomfortably wide smile and he wrapped his arms around Celine in a great big hug.

Celine stood in place for a few seconds before Dani let go.

"Sorry about that. You guys are just so open to me, even when you're trying to ignore me and make me leave."

"You are welcome," Celine spoke as she looked around, in order to not have to make eye contact with Dani after whatever that once was. It was so sudden, but this kid's eagerness and appreciation… was strangely endearing to her.

She then turned to Rosalinda again, but gave a glance to Dani.

"So, where were we? Did everything, you know, go well for you after I left?" Celine asked.

"Oh, for sure," Rosalinda spoke with a wave of her hand. "I went home after you left. Dani over there left before I did. Don't think ya missed much, really. You?"

"Me? I am actually quite behind on my schedule… I have a lot to catch up on."

Rosalinda nodded thoughtfully. Sometimes people just got behind in some things.

"Dani, what'd you do?" Rosalinda asked, though she still looked at Celine.

"You already know what I did. I went home and I wrote down 73 questions for you guys," he responded as if that was something he did all the time.

Celine was suddenly glad that she hadn't had to answer that many questions. When she turned to look at Dani, he was moving away from the two of them. He walked towards a neon green bike, focused on it. Celine couldn't quite make out what he was staring at so intently, but it seemed to be something other than the bike.

"What are you getting into over there?" Celine asked.

Dani didn't respond, instead he crouched down slowly. He leaned forward even closer to the bike. As he did, Celine could've sworn she'd seen something blue among the neon green bike.

Suddenly, Dani cried out in pain. It was a sudden cry that caught both Celine and Rosalinda off guard.

"It won't let go of me!"


	8. The Strange Creations

"It's got me! It won't let go!"

Celine and Rosalinda rushed over to Dani to see why he was frantically trying to pull his arm away.

Underneath Dani's bike was a strange creature. The body was small but bulky, it seemed to be made of several pieces of shiny blue metal all bolted together. The head was made up of the same metal, featureless except for the sights that reflected off of it. In the middle was a small hole, like a holepuncher had attacked this thing.

But the most important part about this thing was that its wirelike limbs were wrapped around Dani's arm.

He was trying to detach it, but the small automaton just wouldn't budge.

Out of seemingly nowhere, the tip of the creature's arm pierced Dani's wrist.

"Get off!" Dani spoke, as Hozde gripped the creature with several of its hands.

The metallic creature was flung off and clattered to the ground. It slowly stood up, and looked up at the trio.

A speaker now filled the hole in the machine's body, and a surprisingly calm voice came from it.

"I won't beat around the bush here. This is my personal helper, Akrillic. You have twenty four hours before your lackey over there is paralyzed for the rest of his life."

Hozde immediately went to grab for Akrillic, but the enemy Stand's arm extended to yank Hozde down. It was not Dani's day today.

"I don't suggest doing that. The only way you'll be able to save your friend is to find me, the real me. If any of you smash Akrillic, you will never ever find me. Your friend will never move their limbs again, and it will be your fault."

"How do we know if you are just saying this to mess with us or not?" Celine asked.

"They always ask that. If you don't believe me, just ask your friend over there to move his fingers."

Celine and Rosalinda looked over to Dani.

"That's easy!" Dani spoke. He wiggled his fingers, but realized that half of them wouldn't budge. "Hey... that's not supposed to happen!"

"Now you know I'm not lying," Akrillic spoke. "I have places to be, now."

Akrillic released Hozde from its grip.

"You'd better follow me if you know what's good for you. But I won't make it easy, just because I don't think this should be easy for you."

With that, the speaker slid back into Akrillic's body and it began to run.

Pantera appeared and tried to pounce on Akrillic, but the smaller robot-like creature swerved out of the way.

Akrillic kept moving, and Pantera kept a steady eye on it. But every time she or Hozde tried to latch onto it, the spindly foe would nimbly move out of the way.

Akrillic began to kick up the pace, running away like its life depended on it. Despite its legs being wiry and wobbly, it could really move.

Dani started running after it like his life also depended on it, which was fair, because it did.

"Come back! Fix my hand!" He cried, and just as before, the small Stand eluded his grasp. It was apparent he still wanted to follow it, since he still wouldn't let up despite this fact.

Celine and Rosalinda looked over to each other, surprised by this sudden action. Celine was the first one to tail after Dani, followed quickly by Rosalinda.

'What is going with him?' Celine thought as she gained ground between herself and Dani. Unfortunately, the point-of-view didn't allow the forbidden knowledge of what thoughts bounced around in Dani's mind.

Akrillic would soon be off the grass and out of the park. Dani followed, so did Celine, and then Rosalinda in some chaotic version of a single file line. Celine, all the while, drew closer and closer to Dani.

Dani's chest heaved heavily as he pursued the enemy Stand. He began to lose steam, his pace slowed but he still ran as best as he could. Today was not a good day to wear skinny pants.

Rosalinda, meanwhile, trailed at the end of the line-of-running. Pantera paced at her side, and gave wary looks at Akrillic.

"Go get 'em, Pantera," Rosalinda said, with a smile for added encouragement.

Just like that, Pantera herself began to pick up speed. She passed Rosalinda quickly, and soon approached Celine.

The other Stand, Akrillic, paid no mind to this and kept running. It reached the pavement and also paid no mind about the cars ahead. With a deft, springy leap, it hopped onto one of the cars that drove by. Rinse and repeat to get a mischievous malevolent Stand that was already halfway across the street.

In another act of desperate running, Dani also almost stepped onto the street in his pursuit of Akrillic. Something jerked him backwards and he fell backwards onto the sidewalk. Sprawled on the concrete, Dani stared up to face the thing that had pulled him back so suddenly.

"I cannot believe you," Celine spoke. "Was

your plan to run directly into the road?"

"It was right there, I swear. I could've caught it with Hozde," Dani replied as he stood up.

Pantera arrived on the spot next, and weaved her way between Dani and Celine. She stared over at Akrillic, who was now almost to the other sidewalk.

"Ohhhh, I'm gonna die," Dani said mournfully as he stared at the runaway Stand.

"You are not going to die," Celine reassured.

'As long as he does not run into the road again,' her mind's self added.

"You heard that guy… I'm not gonna be able to move. What if I can't move my lungs?"

"Well, there's gotta be a way to keep up to it," Rosalinda unexpectedly chimed in. She, too, had since caught up. "It's still in sight, so we're not out of it yet."

"Okay, okay," Dani said, as he stared upon his immobile fingers. "So now what?"

Celine glanced around for a solution. A plan. Something crafted to click together into motion masterfully… There it was!

"Follow me," Celine spoke, and she turned to start off in a seemingly random direction.

Yet again, the trio (or quartet, since Pantera) ran in an oddly crooked single-file line. They dashed down the sidewalk as Dani and Rosalinda tried to close the large gap of distance between themselves and Celine. When they caught up, Celine stood idly next to a pole.

"What… is this plan…" Dani gasped. "Why is there... so much… running?"

Beep beep.

A sign lit up next to the pole and Celine began to walk across the road. No destruction occurred due to Celine's amazing road-crossing plan– otherwise known as 'using the crosswalk'.

"It's still too far away," Rosalinda spoke. "How're we supposed to catch up to it?"

"We cannot catch it- not yet," Celine explained. "But I can still see it over there."

True to word, Akrillic was running away, but still in sight. There was a large distance between themselves and the Stand, though.

"Right, but how do we catch up?" Rosalinda asked.

"We chase it until it stops," Celine suggested.

"That's your plan?" Dani replied.

"We cannot outspeed it, so our only option is to chase it until it runs out of energy or we corner it," Celine explained. "Now we need to start walking before it gets out of sight."

And so the three started to slowly chase after Akrillic. There were several times that they almost lost all hope, with Akrillic being completely out of sight. Then it would appear in the corners of their view and start skittering forward, almost as if to taunt them.

They started getting into less people-crowded areas of the city, which made it much easier to navigate and follow Akrillic.

As Akrillic's voice had promised, the paralysis kept spreading throughout Dani's body. Eventually, he realized that he could no longer move his entire left arm. This sent him into a panic.

"It's happening," Dani said as he stared down at his arm in shock. "I can't move my arm. Before you know it, I'll be stuck and then after that, dead."

"Relax, Dani," Rosalinda said as she tried to soothe his worries. "Even if we can't find that Stand guy, you'll be okay."

"I don't want to be paralyzed for the rest of my life," Dani replied. "How am I supposed to live like that?"

"We'll figure it out. It took me a few weeks to get used to my HRT at first, y'know? But I managed to figure it out," Rosalinda explained as she looked at Dani.

Dani glanced away.

"I just don't know about this…" he spoke as he stared down at his paralyzed arm.

"Your cure is still there, Dani. We still have time to find Akrillic and fix your arm," Celine piped up.

"Right," Dani said with a nod. "One question, Celine."

"And your question is?" Celine asked.

"Can you carry me? I know it sounds dumb but my arm is heavy and I don't know if I'll be able to use my legs all day either," Dani said hesistantly.

"Alright. Get on my back," Celine replied.

Dani pulled himself up onto Celine's back slowly, and put his one free arm over her shoulder for stability.

Celine continued to carry Dani on her back, though he occasionally fell off a few times. The paralysis was starting to spread to Dani's neck, fortunately he could still breathe. Meanwhile, Rosalinda and Pantera kept an alert eye out for Akrillic.

They heard the distant voice of someone shouting, and figured it was just for someone else. To their surprise a woman with a large muscular frame (she was even taller than Celine) came pushing between the commuting crowds of passersby and approached Celine.

"A bright hello to you three," she said, her arms were outstretched as she walked. Her short, neon-bright spiky hair bounced with every deliberate step. Whenever she moved her arms, the 8 total bracelets rattled noisily. The hem of her short dress waved in the light breeze.

None of the three knew who this woman was.

Right before the mystery woman came into physical contact, she folded her arms and clapped her hands together in another loudly deliberate move.

"Can't you feel the tension already building?" she said with a wide smile.

"No… who are you?" Celine questioned as she made sure to stand in front of Rosalinda, just in case.

"Introductions, introductions. Everybody always worries too much about them… but since you look to worry too much about it, my name's Venga."

"Hey there," Rosalinda said, as she stepped out from behind Celine. "I know you're probably looking to make friends, and I'm sure you'd be a great pal, but we're in a big hurry. You get it, right?"

Venga raised a hand to her mouth.

"No time for friends? What a pathetic life you three must live," she said with a pitiful look.

"Hey!" Dani said, offended.

"How sad. I almost feel bad for you," Venga said, as a figure manifested behind her. It was a mannequin. A perfect, glossy replica of the ones you'd see in a department store- besides its lack of arms or legs. It hovered there idly, eyes closed as in sleep or deep thought.

"I'll say this to you once and only once. This is Ace of Base," Venga said.

Celine glanced over at Dani unsuredly.

'I cannot afford another fight, especially when Dani is still affected by that Akrillic,' she thought.

"We do not mean to fight you," she then spoke, trying to reason.

"I know," Venga said with a nod.

She spread out her arms and Ace of Base's eyes opened. The holes where its arms and legs were began to glow a bright silver color.

"I adore this part," she said.

"Now that we have that agreed, will you let us through?" Celine asked.

Venga closed her eyes and gave a slight smile.

"Sorry, but the both of us know that can't happen," she spoke.

She opened her eyes suddenly.

"This will be an exciting end for the three of you, don't you think? I couldn't imagine anything better."


End file.
